River Axe

Open Canoe

December 2010

It was a beautiful and crisp morning with a slight frost on the ground. Just perfect for paddling an open canoe down a picturesque river.

We set off at 8 o’clock for Whitford Bridge near Musbury where we dropped off our boats

and headed for the Axe Vale Canoe Club Club house situated in the sailing club harbour in Seaton.

We joined up with the very friendly Axe Vale Canoe Club members who after allowing us to use their warm changing rooms arranged lifts for us back to the boats at Whitford Bridge.

We were a hearty crew of nine and allowed the Axe Vale guys to set off first and then after a quick safety brief launched onto the water and got a feel for the river. Wendy, unfortunately, after a play on the small weir got a very good feel for the river and its temperature. Ever the soldier she promptly got back in an we set of down the river.

The trip was fantastic we paddled along taking lots of paddling tips from the coaches we had with us. The weater was amazing and us some spectacular views you could only get from a boat on the water.

We managed to get past Nicky’s post, where she got a little water interaction during the River Axe race earlier this year, without any problems. We had one minor incident with a tree where the whole of Devon could here me shouting to Nicky “don’t hold the tree don’t hold the tree” much to her amusement. We managed to untangle ourselves and proceeded on to the estuary  where we took some forward paddling from Geoff (God ).

We finished the paddle back at Seaton Harbour.

We had an amazing morning and a great paddle doing exactly what we started paddling for. The peace of the water, the clean air, the amazing views and most of all doing something for just us.